Tag Archives: Talks

Making Lewes’s autumn 2017 series of talks turned into an impromptu mini-festival, though happening over a longer than usual six-week time frame. The title referred to Making Lewes’s range of themes encompassed by the talks. The six evening events, running from late September through to early November, were hosted in Lewes’s newest arts venue, Fitzroy House. A one-time Victorian library, by George Gilbert Scott – architect of St Pancras Station Hotel – its Neo-Gothic atmosphere is particularly powerful in the main octagonal library room where the talks were held.

We welcomed Anne Mette Hjortshøj all the way from the Baltic Sea island, Bornholm, known across Europe as a centre for crafts and particularly, ceramics.

Anne Mette’s warmly appealing talk, about her and the island’s pottery traditions, told with a lightness of touch easily won over the Lewes audience. Alongside Anne Mette, Lewes’s very own Tanya Gomez gave an equally absorbing talk about her ceramic works and the connections with the sea and traveling. Both speakers were part of the larger Making Lewes – Collaborative Kaleidoscope launch event, mixing a sit-down vegetarian supper in between talks, along with a showcase exhibition of invited Sussex potters titled Cooked, Baked and Fired Again.

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Our next two evenings were given over to architects, though very different types of architects. Nabeel Hamdi is internationally recognised in the development field for his work on participatory processes and community engagement in housing and other building projects in many parts of the developing world. Hamdi’s talk, titled Building a Humanitarian Architecture: Deciding Interventions, was lapped up by an audience of committed Lewesians.

The following week Duncan Baker-Brown, Lewes’s very own high profile eco-architect and one half of BBM Sustainable Architecture, packed Fitzroy House out so that we were having to turn folks away even before the evening started. The night was in effect a book launch for his recently published The Re-Use Atlas, ML partnering with Baker-Brown. The talk profiled projects across different – if primarily European – parts of the world, which are leading the way towards realising the circular economy, through re-use, upcycling and Cradle-to-Cradle approaches to sustainability. The audience were sent home dreaming of how Lewes might also, maybe actually really,enact one or two of these inspiring examples.

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Following on from the Baker-Brown evening, ML temporarily rehoused itself in Studio Hardie’s workshop at the far end of the Phoenix Estate for a double bill of woody related evening talks. This again was a partnership, this time with Ditchling Arts + Crafts Museum. The two speakers were Fred Baier, one of the true originals of the furniture making and design world, and the young Polish artist, Anna Bera, who had literally just completed her art residency at the museum, the previous dat. Baier gave a characteristically one-off and unique window into his work and life, mixing comedy and gravitas and leaving the audience rolling in the ailses, and calling out for an encore. Before this Bera had talked in conversation with the British Council’s Gian Luca Amadeil. ML’s audience headed for home with a warm glow on their faces, and probably in their hearts as well.

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Earlier in the afternoon Bera and ML’s artist member Zuky Serper ran a very successful open Pop Up workshop in the Linklater Pavilion on the Railway Land Nature Reserve. Both artists have long worked with children, and it was particularly re-affirming to see and hear so many children with their parents, intently hammering, sawing, knocking and generally bashing away.

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Back in Fitzroy House, the fifth and penultimate of the talks was again all about children, though also about how children and adults can co-learn together. Emily Charkin from WIlderness Wood, talked about her and her lapsed architect partner Dan Morrish’s reason’s for taking over Wilderness Wood in Hadlow Down and turning it into an experiment in open wild learning. Charkin’s Learning through Building talk made a persuasive case for the creativity and learning whichhappens when children – and adults – work, make, and build together in the outdoor without walls world. Charkin’s children, who she invited to also talk, spoke confidently about the experience from their perspectives, making a yet more persuasive case for wild learning happening down in the woods.

Finally, all the way from Reykjavik, Iceland, Hans Johannsson, arrived to give a mind-expanding presentation on violin-making in the 21st century. The wild northern island’s principle luthier, Johannsson has also turned his attention to a series of experiments aimed at broadening the understanding of both what violins could be in the new century – why no art nouveau violin, why no modernist violin? He asked – and answered universal questions about the nature of sound and tone. Johannsson, a master craftsman and maker, is an inspiring illustration of just how far one can go with radical sonic ideas and technologies, while maintaining a fundamental link with the craft, if the curiosity and culture of questioning is there. It may have been the most ambitious of the talks conceptually given over the six weeks, but it left those present thought-provoked about the role, nature and possibilities of what it means to be a maker or crafts-person, if imagination and a taste for adventure are present and willing.

All the way from Reykjavik, Iceland, Johannson is the country’s principal luthier and violin-maker, and is the last speaker in the Living and working in the capital Johannsson has been practicing his music instrument craft since completing studies and training at Britain’s principal Newark School of Violin Making.

Alongside traditional violin making, Johannsson’s music and sonic interests are broad. He has developed a series of Twenty First century violins and other experimental stringed instruments, collaborating with fellow Icelandic artists and musicians, including Olafur Eliasson, and his son Ulfur Hansson, and is involved in various experimental acoustics research projects.

Emily Charkin is one half of the husband and wife partnership, who have turned Wilderness Wood in Hadlow Down, Sussex, into an inspirational and thriving centre for children and adults to learn and work together.

Charkin will explore the educational value of the experience of co-making and building for both children and adults, alongside Wilderness Wood’s place within the radical education tradition. For anyone interested in active learning beyond the classroom walls and school gates.

Talks are free though with a £5 suggested donation (to support continuing Making Lewes programming)

September 29th – Anne Mette and Tanya Gomez

Anne Mette Hjortshøj is one of Bornholm’s leading potters, the Danish Baltic Sea island with a worldwide ceramics and craft culture reputation.

Tanya Gomez – Over the last ten years Gomez has been developing a dedicated following for her ceramic work, gaining recognition nationally and was a recent recipient of an Arts Council Grant for a showcase piece at this years Crafts Council’s Collect Open show.

October 6th – Nabeel Hamdi

Hamdi is Emeritus Professor of Housing and Urban Development at Oxford Brookes University. Hamdi’s focus is social, urban housing and international development and is known across the development sector. He has provisionally titled his talk Building a Humanitarian architecture: Deciding Interventions.

October 13th – Duncan Baker-Brown

Baker-Brown is a co-founder of the respected Lewes based BBM Sustainable Design studio, architect of the Wastehouse, (which highlights re-use and recycling in building materials), and author of recently published The Re-Use Atlas. The evening is centred around his new book.

October 20th Fred Baier, Furniture Maker + Anna Bera

(at Studio Hardie, Phoenix Works, Lewes BN7 2PE)

Fred Baier – Internationally renowned furniture maker, Baier pioneered the use of computer aided design in furniture making in the 1980’s, and has been at the forefront of drawing together analogue and digital making in the decades since. Baier’s talk is titled Form Swallows Function – crossing the analogue/digital divide.

Anna Bera, Polish artist and the British Councilʼs European programmes manager Gian Luca Amadei in conversation.

Bera is Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft current artist-in-residence as part of their autumn exhibition, New Truth to Materials: Wood. From Poland, Bera is particularly interested in natural materials, and has worked using wood on her Wild Children projects.

October 20th – 15.30 – 17.30 – Wonky Toys and Wild Children Workshop

(at the Linklater Pavilion, Railway Ln, Lewes BN7 2FG)

An ‘all are welcome’ Wonky Toys workshop for children accompanied by an adult led by Lewes artist Zuky Serper with Anna Bera, reprising Zuky’s very successful workshop during the Make Lewes Festival 2016 in the Turkish Baths.

The workshop and talks evening are in partnership with Ditchling Arts + Crafts Museum

October 27th Emily Charkin

Charkin is one half of the partnership, who have turned Wilderness Wood in Hadlow Down into an inspirational centre for children and adults to learn together through outdoor self-building and making. With extensive educational experience Charkin’s talk will explore the educational value of making and building for children and Wilderness Wood’s place within the radical education tradition.

November 3rd– Hans Johannsson

Johannson is Iceland’s principal stringed instrument and violin-maker, living and working in Reykjavik. Alongside the craft of traditional violin making, Johannsson has also developed a series of twenty first century violins and other stringed instruments, collaborating with fellow Icelandic artists and musicians, including Olafur Eliasson.

Clem Blakemore – the young award winning architect will talk about her self built Lacey Green School Music room project, which uses its Buckinghamshire site as a key starting point.

David Smith, from Lewes based Flintman, the leading flint wall builders, who’s work include Flint House, RIBA’s 2015 house of the year.

Meredith Bowles ofMole Architects – East Anglia’s Mole Architects have developed an international reputation for exploring the regional vernacular style and introducing them to a contemporary architectural world.

Julian Belart is a French student architect working in the Calais Jungle, supported by ‘Lewes Action for Refugees‘, on emergency shelter and other projects in the encampment. He will be talking about his work in Calais for the first time in Lewes.

Nerea Eloyduy is co-founder of Kigali based Active Social Architecture, who has been working on health and education projects in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Europe with emphasis on community participation and post conflict environments. Eloyduy is currently developing a PhD at the Bartlett School of Architecture studying the influence of the built environment of long-term refugee camps in East Africa on young children’s development.

The Makers Talks Evening follows Collaborative Conversations, a regional crafts symposium organised in partnership with CraftNet and the Crafts Council.

Ewan Clayton is one of the country’s best known calligraphers and author of The Golden Thread: A History of Writing. Born in Ditchling, Clayton ran the last academic calligraphy course in the country and is about to launch a new calligraphy studio in Brighton.

Rachel Ward-Sale of Bookbinders of Lewes. Rachel Ward-Sale has been a long time Lewes book binder from her workshop in the Star Gallery. (To co-incide with the evening the Star Gallery will be holding an open day on the 1st October.)

Diana Wildschut & Harmen Zijp – the Amersfoort Fab-Lab, Holland

Diana Wildschut and Harman Zijp are the co-founders of Fablab Amersfoort, a bottom up grassroots and Open Source Fablab in Holland. Amersfoort was the first FabLab funded and operated entirely by those who needed it. The FabLab space is viewed as a knowledge sharing space, primarily using recycled materials and working with self-built and open source machines.

Liz Corbin – The Institute of Making, London

Liz Corbin is a doctoral researcher at the Institute of Making, University College London. Corbin co-founded the Open Workshop Network and Maker Assembly and her research explores the UK’s emergent maker culture. The Institute of Making is a multidisciplinary research club for all those interested in the made world; whether molecules, spacecraft, soup, or cities. It’s a hub for celebrating UK making and helping shape the maker space and maker culture debate in Britain.

Tomas Diez – Validaura Green Fab Lab, Barcelona

Tomas Diez is a Venezuela-born Urbanist, and director of Fab Lab Barcelona, one of the leading laboratories in the worldwide FabLab network located in and around Barcelona. The network is partially focused on a new generation of FabLabs, including Vallidaura, the world’s first Green FabLab. Diez is also co-founder of the Smart Citizen project and StudioP52.n.